A Politics of Auto-Cannibalism: Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale
This article re-opens the debate concerning the biblical intertexts of The Handmaid's Tale, turning to the analogy between the theocratic Gilead and Nazi Germany via the novel's evocations of biblical sacrifices, including that of the Passover lamb - an intertextual entanglement which stil...
| Published in: | Literature and theology |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2016]
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| In: |
Literature and theology
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| RelBib Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture CG Christianity and Politics KBB German language area TK Recent history |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | This article re-opens the debate concerning the biblical intertexts of The Handmaid's Tale, turning to the analogy between the theocratic Gilead and Nazi Germany via the novel's evocations of biblical sacrifices, including that of the Passover lamb - an intertextual entanglement which still remains unexamined today, in 2015, the year that marks the thirtieth anniversary of the novel's publication. Both the Passover sacrifice and The Handmaid's Tale, I will argue, present us with a figurative self-consumption that points to a politics of 'autocannibalism', which illuminates the parallel between Gilead and Nazi Germany whilst fleshing out its implications on Atwood's treatment of the tripartite connection between politics, sacrifice, and eating. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4623 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Literature and theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/litthe/frv030 |